The Dangers of Overworking: One-shot!
by chachingmel123
Summary: A one-shot designed to be a reminder to take a break once in a while. Very Mature themes. Character Death!


The dangers of Overworking

I do not own The Loud House.

Enjoy!

"Dude, when was the last time you slept?" said, Clyde McBride as they walked to school.

Lincoln Loud blinked, his eyes looked terrible, they were red and puffy, the bags under his eyes were also way more prominent.

How his family could let him out of the house look like that was beyond him but when you wake up to the chaos of the Loud House, everybody was just trying to get out of the door on time.

"Last night" said, Lincoln.

"Lincoln" said, Clyde giving him a serious look.

"Okay, two weeks ago when I want over to your place for a sleep over" admitted Lincoln. "So I had a few rocky nights. I feel perfectly fine"

"Do you really feel fine or have you learned to ignore the warning signs of your body?" said, Clyde, getting him. "My parents told me, sleep is essential. It keeps your brain in top form. If you don't sleep, than your brains slowly collapses and before you know it, you're at a point of no return. Promise me, you'll try to get some rest after school"

"I can't" said, Lincoln. "After school I'm fully booked with helping my sisters. All of my sisters have big events coming up so I need to help them get ready. You know how my house is. The madness never stops especially if something like this happens" they entered the school and than he said. "And besides, haven't I always survived this? So what if I'm running around a little more than usual, it keeps me fight"

And Clyde had to agree, Lincoln had managed to get through a lot over the years and came out fine.

But that didn't stop the sinking feeling in his stomach, that just maybe, this time would be different.

"I guess your right" said, Clyde. "Its not like your experiencing hair loss or something. Than I'll truly be worried"

Hair loss?

Lincoln suddenly got a nervous laugh which unnerved his best friend.

It was already happening.

"Lincoln, please. Go to bed as soon as get home." said, Clyde with all seriousness. "You have to promise me you will or I wont let you go to class" and than he held Lincoln and the boy found out he couldn't get out.

No.

He was too weak to truly put up a fight due to his lack of sleep.

And Clyde could feel it too.

"Fine" said, Lincoln "I'll get some sleep. Can you just release me?"

Clyde did so and both fo them rushed to class.

When Mrs Johnson saw Lincoln, she stared at him for a minute before deciding to call the house after school.

She said nothing as he sat down and started the register.

As the day progressed, more teachers saw him but they either didn't want to see it or were far too busy to truly think about it too deeply.

When Lincoln got home, he didn't even have time to settle his heavy bag down and relieved his back from the burden, because Lola saw him and through her kit at him to catch.

"I've got you for the next 30 minutes so chop, chop" said, Lola, clapping to command him.

And than Lincoln remembered his promise to Clyde.

Well, every day right now was important for Lola big day because she was acceptancing her little miss princess of the year award.

So he ignored his body once more, even when it was telling him to go to sleep or take a break and instead followed Lola upstairs.

He entered the world of intense beauty pageant gent world.

Unfortunately, who he had next was Lynn Junior and she was preparing to go to the regional finals in Hockey.

With his weakened body and her harder than normal attitude, he was bulldozed down and his legs bled because of the constant attack from her Hockey stick.

"Lincoln, are you even taking this seriously?" said, Lynn Junior frowning. "Its like I'm going up against the wind;"

"I'm Sorry, Lynn" said, Lincoln. "I'm just feeling well today"

Not feeling well?

Suddenly Lynn slapped him on the back and he almost bent over as she said. "Suck it up. I'm going to regionals and I need you to help me prepare for it"

"Well, he can do that later" said, Lucy suddenly appearing from beside them and making them both jump out of their skin. "Its my turn to have Lincoln now. He needs to help me get ready for the summoning party I'm hosting"

And Lincoln was glad to have an excuse to get away from Regional crazed Lynn.

"You heard the girl" said, Lincoln, throwing down his Hockey stick. "Lucy has me now"

And than he went with Lucy.

Lynn throw her hockey stick in frustration only to attempt to pick back up but was stunned when she saw her arm.

Lincoln white hair was covering her arm.

But this wasn't just a couple of flakes either, it was like she shook a bush and her arm became a white fluff ball.

"Gross" she said, shaking it off before promptly forgetting about it.

And to Lincoln being with Lucy was like a breath of fresh air because he did not feel like being positive today and Lucy went slow with hum.

Unfortunately, that bliss only lasted 30 minutes before he was dragged by Luna to her side of the room to listen to her new song for her biggest concert yet.

The speakers were loud and Lincoln felt an unholy crankiness come over him as the sound was threatening to knock him off his feet.

He couldn't even hear the words she was speaking even though he was this close, it was like his mind just blacked her voice out.

But because of this, he could manage his crankiness.

"Okay, next song" said Luna.

Suddenly they both heard. "The only song Lincoln will be hearing now is the sound of his funny bone being tickled"

Luan.

A way out.

Lincoln went with Luan to hear the jokes she made in preparation for her largest audience yet, however no matter how much Lincoln tried to being encouraging by laughing, his brain went 'I don't have the energy to laugh so screw your encouragement, your not laughing'.

It made Luan think her best jokes were terrible because it was obvious to her that Lincoln was trying and failing to force himself to laugh.

By the time 30 minutes was up, Luan was truly upset.

"You don't have to force yourself to laugh if you don't want to" said. Luan. "I get the hint that the jokes I've prepared are horrible"

"No, Luan" said, Lincoln. "Your jokes are really good, it just that today I'm just weird. I promise you that by tomorrow, I'll be laughing my butt off at your jokes. It your best material yet, don't scrap them.

And than Lana came in and dragged him away.

She needed him for heavy lifting, but he soon proved to be useless, since his strength was gone and his mind wasn't there when she told him to pass a piece of her equipment as if he was doing it for the first time.

He kept forgetting what was what.

When they went for Diner, Lana was more than a little ticked off with her big brother and Lincoln was apologising for his lack of strength and his lack of concentration.

As he sat down, he had no idea that his teacher had called and that it was his mom who picked up the phone, but because he wasn't in trouble and the woman was just checking in to see if he was getting enough sleep, his mother didn't think it was important enough to bring it up while they ate their mash potato's.

The moment their parents left the table the marriage couple were already preparing to go outside and leave them in the house for a couple of hours.

Lisa was dragging him to her room the moment she saw him finished and he was dumped with once again Lily.

Lisa was going to start her experiment when she took a good look at her brother.

A very long hard look at him.

"Hmm" she said, "Unfocused eyes with a red tent, massive bags under your eyes. Your carrying Lily but it looks like you carrying a massive weight because your legs are given way, way more than they should. When was the last time you slept?"

"Does it matter?" said, Lincoln. "I got to help all of you with your upcoming events."

"It does matter because I require an assistant with a sound mind" said, Lisa. "You could drop a dangerous chemical or crush something that would make the house explode. I'm not going to be assisted by somebody who is a risk in my lab"

"So I can have him than?" said, Lori, before grabbing Lincoln and Lily almost rolled off his lap, Lisa had to take the baby out of fear for her little sister safety.

He couldn't carry Lily?

Lisa had more than one reason to be alarmed.

However Lori was Bobby crazy right now, since she was finally moving in with him so she didn't truly see how Lincoln was even struggling to walk in a straight line behind her not that his eye sight we're unforced.

So it didn't help that she was asking him to check her schedule and everything when he could hardly see.

He told her wrong times and Lori had to repeat herself several times before Leni came to get him.

Being the sister who was more in touch with helping her siblings out than the rest, she noticed that he didn't look good and was a saint by letting him sleep while she tried clothes on him.

Unfortunately he wasn't out of the woods yet because he still had to do homework despite it clearly being bed time.

The moment he opened that book when he sat on his bed, he was out like a light.

Showering and brushing his teeth were completely gone to the blissful darkness that came for him.

The blackness of the night quickly transformed into the unholy brightness of early morning and the Loud House descended into morning madness, once more

The doors opened and the noise came, everybody was tripping over themselves to get to the bathroom, the madness was so much that nobody noticed that a certain door was never opened until they all received their lunch and their father did a headcount.

"Wait, where's Lincoln?" said, Lynn Senior, before turning to the house and yelling. "LINCOLN!"

No response.

"Just leave him and go" said, Lynn Junior.

"Lynn, you know. We leave together" said, Lynn Senior making her frown.

The man than went back into the house along with the rest of the family but more to tell at him for holding them up.

They went inside, expecting to see a panicking white haired boy trying to get his things together in the kitchen or living room but one quick scan revealed, he wasn't there.

Lisa took out her tracking device and saw Lincoln was in his room and headed there, seeing her walk with purpose, the rest of the family slowly began to follow her to his room.

Wait.

Room?

Lisa knocked on the door.

No answer.

"Yo, LINKY!" yelled Lana. "OPEN UP!"

No answer.

"Let me handle this" said, Lynn Junior before doing a run up, they all moved the hell away.

"HIYA!" She yelled, breaking the door open and making her parents cringe seeing the lock being ripped apart.

They all came in and saw Lincoln sleeping in a crouched position with his math book in hand, and in his usual orange shirt and blue pants.

It was like he never bathed last night.

"What? He's still sleeping?" said, Lori frowning.

"That's a strange way to sleep" said, Luna, before she said. "Rock on little bro!"

They were about to shake him awake, when Lisa suddenly placed a hand on him and her bored eyes suddenly widen a few notches.

Lincoln was warm but what catch her eye was the unbelievable stiffness she could feel in his limbs.

Wait.

This felt like..

But it couldn't be.

"Hey, Lisa. What are you-" began Lynn Junior before they saw Lisa push Lincoln chest with all her might and they watched him go down as if he was a tightly woven puppet,

Seeing and feeling this, something cold dropped into Lisa stomach.

It was just as she feared.

"Rigor Mortis" she whispered, with fear.

"Lincoln, wake up" said, Rita, their mother. "We're late" she was about to touch him when Lisa suddenly snapped back.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!"

Everybody was taken back by the suddenly raw emotion coming from her as tears began to fall from Lisa face.

"Wow, what's going on?" said, Luna

"Don't you see?" said, Lisa, before dropping a bomb shell.

"Lincoln is dead"

Silence.

"What?" said, Luan, before saying. "That's not a very funny joke"

"I'm not joking" said, Lisa stunning them all. "He has Rigor Mortis. Rigor Mortis is a condition when a body become unbelievably stiff after several hours after death. He's not rotting so Lincoln must have died some time last night"

Everybody was stunned.

Nobody wanted to believe it.

Lincoln was suddenly shaken down by all members of the family.

"Lincoln, stop joking. Get up" said, Luan.

"Lincoln, wake up" said, Lola, even she was scared at the prospect of losing her brother.

But he didn't wake up.

The more seconds passed, the more tears started to form as even his parents tried to wake him up.

Lisa excused herself and called the police, with a numbness that she had never felt before.

15 minutes later, the police came along with an ambulance and she directed them to the room.

Lincoln had to be prayed off of his family to be exmined but the moment they saw him, they knew it was already too late, they just checked his pulse to give the family hope that they could fix him.

The body was wheeled out on a stretcher and into an ambulance where the Louds used their van to follow the Vehicle to the hospital.

The once quiet Hospital was suddenly invaded by the Louds but the doctors could tell just by looking at the only boy Loud that he was no longer breathing.

But the real quest was, what did he die from?

Two police officers lingered in the hallway in case, they needed to make an arrest or call CPS.

The medical professionals spent an hour diagnosing him when in reality it was a several minute jobs, it took so long because they wanted to postpone the news.

But it was time to face them and a doctor was sent out to do so.

"Is Lincoln alright?" said, Leni seeing a man in a white coat to come to him.

"No." said, the Doctor. "He's not okay. He's dead. We've figured out, the cause of death was overwork"

"Overwork?" all of them said.

First they were struggling with the truth but now this was dropped on their heads.

Wait.

Suddenly they all remembered, the overflowing schedule they subjected Lincoln to lately without a second thought.

It was nothing if one of them did it, but all 10 of them had stepped up their game by a level.

"W-We killed him" said, Lucy. "It was too much"

"What are you talking about?" said, their mother.

"All of us have been pushing Lincoln lately because of our big events" said, Lisa. "I noticed Lincoln didn't look good yesterday"

"And you didn't say anything?" said, Lynn Junior turning to glare at her.

All of them knew what she was doing was unfair but emotions we're high and she needed an escape goat for emotions.

But Lisa was willy to be her escape goat.

"Don't blame this on, me" said, Lisa, giving her a glare surprising everybody. "You had him way before me. Who was it torturing Lincoln with Hockey under the ruse of training? Okay, please, princess, enlighten us on how you were justified in trying to crush your dying brothers legs!"

And Lynn Junior open and closed her mouth but she couldn't say anything, in the end she looked down in shame with tears swelling up.

"Lisa, no matter what, you shouldn't speak to your sister like that" said, Lynn Senior.

"And what about you two?" said, Lisa, surprising both of them. "You just lost a child and yet I barely see you both shed a tear. You both are barely in the house and when you are, your preaching to Lincoln that he must help everybody because he's the only boy. We'll, look where we are now. The only boy of the house, ignored his own body in favour of helping all of us and for what? A simple thank you! Now that same boy is going to be buried soon. But I'm sure you can boast to the neighbourhood that Lincoln was a helper to the end just like you wanted but I don't want a helper, I want my brother. Give me back, Lincoln"

And than she stormed off.

The whole Hospital was silent and nobody could speak.

Lisa, the least looking emotionally attached, had silenced them all.

The news that Lincoln Loud was dead, came as a slap to all the whole residence around the neighbourhood.

You don't know how much love you until people outside your circle start crying.

When his teacher heard the news, she just sat and stared at the white board, she regretted not going over there and talking to his parents herself but besides informing somebody at the house, would she have even been listened if she pressed?

As for the family, all the members just didn't show up for work or school and it was understandable, but behind closed doors, there was only crying and silence, each member found themselves walking to his room as if they were Pilgrims.

They barely spoke to each other and the only time they truly did was when they were planning the funeral and gathering their money to pay for it.

It was several months later that the Funeral took place.

The beautiful day was cruel to the town, Royal Woods, the whole town showed up in black clothing and took their seats at the graveyard.

Not a single person was smiling as people soon appeared carrying a black casket and in it was Lincoln, dressed in an expensive suit and in his hand was a rose.

Never had he looked so dashing.

The younger ones couldn't keep it in and started crying as Lincoln was laid down for all to see.

It just made it all that more real.

Luna played funeral music in the background with her band, as this was going on.

People wept, not a single smile graced anybody face.

But the sun kept shining.

To the world, Lincoln death was insignificant.

When Lincoln was put down the music stopped and people began to come forward with their tears and flowers to place on his casket.

And than the first person came up to say their goodbye.

It was Clyde.

With shaking hands he opened his letter in front a crowd of one hundred and said. "Lincoln. We've know each other since the beginning of school. I honestly thought we would grow up to see both our kids become best friends just like us. When I heard what happened, I blamed myself. Why, didn't I cycle over there? But knowing you, you wouldn't stay down for too long even if I made you." tears rolled down his eyes, as he continued to read. "Lincoln, I know your in a better place now. This isn't good bye, we're just taking a break from each other. One day, me and you will meet again and you're going to tease me because I'll look so old. But just because I'll be old doesn't mean, I can't still cream you at our favourite video game"

Silence.

His dads, were tearing up as Clyde left.

And than not so close friends came up to say a few words including several classmates, even Ronnie Anne's family was here to pay their respects to Lincoln.

It was one of the rear times, that they all saw Ronnie Anne cry as she insulted him but in a way that was out of grief and sadness, things was going so good for both of them as well.

Why did he have to die?

And than Lincoln family came up.

Even though all of them stood in front of the crowd, they all wrote one note and appointed one person to read it and that was Lynn Junior.

She opened the letter with shaking hands, it was noticeably stained with tears, as she read.

"Lincoln, were sorry"

Silence.

"I know that wasn't what you expected to hear" she said. "But its what we wanted to tell you. We're sorry that we placed onto you more than you can handle. We are sorry that we kept taking you for granted. We, just always thought that you would always be there no matter what, that it rarely came to our mind that, you're a person too who needs sleep, who needed to be pampered and cared for as well. We really did care for you but we just didn't show that enough and we can even admit that we were down right jerks sometimes. If I could take back every hard punch I throw at you for no reason, I would"

More silence.

"Lisa says, she could have eased up on invading your privacy" said, Lynn. "Lola says, she could have asked somebody else like Leni to help her prepare and given you some space. Lana says, she could have asked me to help her once in the while since I'm more athletic. Lucy said, that she could have gone to her friends place if she wanted to be spooky. Luan said she could have asked any of us to listen to her jokes. Luna could have made any one of us listen to her music. Leni says she had lots of subjects, to try on her clothes. Lori says, she could have put down her phone more and really helped you out. Our parents say, they should have been around the house and not dump you with everything. All of us have grown after what happened but it came with a cost. We are really sorry Lincoln that you suffered in your last few hours of life. It would always hunt us what we did and how we could have prevented it. We did not deserve a brother like you and we can only look back now and think of the memories we've made. We look to the future for that special day we meet again. And on that day, we will make sure you know how truly special you are to us."

The letter finished and all of them were crying.

They all walked back to their seats and more people came up.

When all of them finished, Lincoln was lowered into the ground and Luna band played in the background as it was lowered and buried with mud.

It was a lesson to all of them that they only get one body and how devastating it could be to ignore it.

They hoped Lincoln found peace in the other life.

However, unknown to them, under a tree not that far away was Lincoln next to the embodiment of Death.

It was finally over.

He took Deaths hand and both of them turned around and walked away.

They slowly disappeared, never to be seen again.

And scene!

A one-shot to remind myself not to overdo it. Review!


End file.
